Can anyone tell me what the TiVo Roamio Internal Blue Light means ? ? ? (the INSIDE one which can be seen through the top, not the "downloading" front light one) (Current suspicion is it means "start-up prevented, due to low power", since upgraded HDD is 6.5 watts more, and power brick has only a 24 watt total rating, and maybe my house VAC is on the low end to start with)

Is this cause for concern? Something I should ignore? Return it? Suggestions?

BACKGROUND INFO: About 50% of the time when I unplug my Roamio (3 week old, OTA model, LTS, with 3TB internal WD AVGP) then plug it back in, it does not start up or show any signs of life when I press any of the remotes buttons. It will stay completely off, with only the INTERNAL blue light turned on. It will do this, regardless of the duration I leave it unplugged or plugged in. Unplug and plug in 1 or twice more, than it starts up.

Can anyone tell me what the Roamio Internal Blue Light means ? ? ? (the INSIDE one which can be seen through the top, not the "downloading" front light one)

BACKGROUND INFO:
I unplugged my Roamio for 2 minutes (3 week old, OTA model, LTS, with 3TB internal WD AVGP) plugged it back in and went to bed. Next morning it was completely off, with only the INTERNAL blue light turned on.

I then unplugged it for about 10 seconds, plugged it in, same problem. (no signs of life, just internal blue)

I then unplugged it for about 2 minutes, plugged it in, and now it's 100% fine and fully working.

Is this cause for concern? Something I should ignore? Return it? Suggestions?

Happened to my wife because she got her hand near or on the power light and put the TiVo in standby mode, press the remote TiVo button and see what happens.

No, that's not the problem, but thanks for suggesting. My problem randomly happens about 1/2 the times I unplug and then plug back in. I tried with my hand over the GREEN light, and it has no effect. Also, when in "internal blue light" mode, it does not respond to ANY remote buttons.

No, that's not the problem, but thanks for suggesting. My problem randomly happens about 1/2 the times I unplug and then plug back in. I tried with my hand over the GREEN light, and it has no effect. Also, when in "internal blue light" mode, it does not respond to ANY remote buttons.

Any other ideas ? ? ? ?

Remove the drive and test the drive with the free WD diag, if it passes the test you can tell the program to write all zeros to the drive making it blank, re-install the drive and try again, you can also put in another drive (it can be 0.5Tb or bigger) and see what happens.

...test the drive with the free WD diag...also put in another drive....see what happens.

Is this general troubleshooting advice, or are you saying the blue light specifically means HDD failure? I am within the 30 day return period, but would HATE to loose my recorded shows. Note that it boots up fine 50% of the time, and has NEVER crashed or failed while running. - Thanks for the help!

Is this general troubleshooting advice, or are you saying the blue light specifically means HDD failure? I am within the 30 day return period, but would HATE to loose my recorded shows. Note that it boots up fine 50% of the time, and has NEVER crashed or failed while running. - Thanks for the help!

I have no idea what the blue light means or what it is for, I would return the unit within the 30 day time and make sure you get a new one back, not a refurb unit.

Is this general troubleshooting advice, or are you saying the blue light specifically means HDD failure? I am within the 30 day return period, but would HATE to loose my recorded shows. Note that it boots up fine 50% of the time, and has NEVER crashed or failed while running. - Thanks for the help!

That is general troubleshooting advice. No one else (AFAIK) has reported the problem you have, much less anything about a blue light that shines from inside the box.

It is understandable if you don't want to take the hard drive out and test it with the drive manufacturer's diagnostic tool, but it sounds like your only other option is to exchange the Tivo for another one. If you do that, follow lessd's advice and demand that the replacement be new, not a refurb.

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That is general troubleshooting advice. No one else ...about a blue light that shines from inside the box.

QUESTION 1) If I do the WD Diag (without the wipe zeros) will it preserve my recorded Show & Season Passes?

QUESTION 2) If I re-install the original 0.5 TB drive as a test, then later re-re-install my 3TB drive, with the 3TB preserve all my Show & Season Passes?

QUESTION 3) If I determine the 3TB drive is bad , can I manually copy the drive's content to a new identical model 3TB and preserve my Show & Season? ...if not, what if I clone the disk as an image via Macrium Reflect's free version?

QUESTION 1) If I do the WD Diag (without the wipe zeros) will it preserve my recorded Show & Season Passes?

QUESTION 2) If I re-install the original 0.5 TB drive as a test, then later re-re-install my 3TB drive, with the 3TB preserve all my Show & Season Passes?

QUESTION 3) If I determine the 3TB drive is bad , can I manually copy the drive's content to a new identical model 3TB and preserve my Show & Season? ...if not, what if I clone the disk as an image via Macrium Reflect's free version?

- Thanks guys, you rock!

Question 1 Yes
Question 2 Yes (if the 3Tb drives now works, but if you get a replacement TiVo you can't save the shows as the replacement would have a different TSN, requiring you to do a full C&D all on your 3Tb drive to get the Roamio to work)
Question 3 No because if the drive is bad no way you could copy only the shows without coping the full drive to a new 3Tb drive, and that, more than likely, would include the bad sectors that are keeping the drive from booting, but a full copy may be worth your while to see what happens, as I have never been able to copy a bad TiVo drive to a good one and have it boot up.

I called TiVo Tech Support, and they new nothing of this internal light. But it's in there, and light up blue when it won't startup.

Any idea where I can get some info as to WHAT the light means? I'm thinking of ignoring the issue and keeping the unit. But i'm still within the 30 day return, so if the light means "your black TiVo is about to die" I want to return it ASAP.

Thanks for the idea, but I'm 100% sure it's an intentionally included LED. I'm an engineer and know an LED when I see one. With the lights dim in the room and that constant glowing LED is the only thing on, it lights up the inside of the box clear enough to read the labeling written on the circuit board. But good idea to ask.

If anyone specifically experienced this or knows WHAT the light means, please reply.

I think that the internal blue light comes on when anyone uses a bold font.

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Thanks for the idea, but I'm 100% sure it's an intentionally included LED. I'm an engineer and know an LED when I see one. With the lights dim in the room and that constant glowing LED is the only thing on, it lights up the inside of the box clear enough to read the labeling written on the circuit board. But good idea to ask.

If anyone specifically experienced this or knows WHAT the light means, please reply.

OK someone take the drive out of their Roamio and with the cover off plug the unit in, see if you can see any blue light, if no blue light it may mean the blue light comes on only if the MB has a problem, so then cut a run on the MB that may be easy for you to repair and see if you get the blue light. I can't do this experiment as I can't find my T10 tool.

Copy what shows you can off to PC, watch up everything else, and exchange it.

I've decided the blue light is the soul of the TiVo attempting to escape its body and go to heaven.

Seriously, if Tech Support at TiVo doesn't even know about an LED on the the motherboard, much less when it's supposed to come on and what it means, I don't see them being of any help with the impending problem in a month or 3 when it's too late to return the unit.

TOPIC#1: Unplugged because was trying to pair RF remote, which seems to loose RF about 1 of every 20 button clicks when using TiVo. (then reconnects within a second or two). My concern is if this unit is a lemon, or will last long term.

Quote:

Originally Posted by unitron

Copy what shows you can off to PC, watch up everything else, and exchange it...

TOPIC#2: I got the LTS for $300 because of an unrelated issue on a Series 2 TiVo, and the Roamio for $100 from Best Buy through a very limited promotion. So am afraid I might loose at least one of these $100 in savings if try to swap unit. But will do it if I can confirm the unit is a lemon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lessd

...take the drive out of their Roamio and with the cover off plug the unit in, see if you can see any blue light...

The OP had the box open to see the little blue light, TiVo can void your warranty if you do open the box but they don't in 99.9% of the cases, even people who change out the drive that TiVo can see by the logs can put the original back in and get their warranty. Just taking the cover off can't void the warranty under any circumstance unless you call TiVo and tell them "I just took the cover off Ha Ha" as who would know if the cover came off. Taking the drive out and powering up the TiVo would send out any message to TiVo, but I only once powered up a Series 2 without a drive as I forgot to connect the power cable (my bad) no harm came of that.

The OP had the box open to see the little blue light... I only once powered up a Series 2 without a drive as I forgot to connect the power cable (my bad) no harm came of that.

I had the BOX CLOSED (cover still on), when I saw the INTERNAL blue light. On the lowest level Roamio, the cover is black, but also slightly translucent. So with the lights dim in the room, and no front lights on, that internal blue light is actually very noticeable. (though only on when the "problem" occurs)

As for your "no harm came of that" scenario, that was exactly what I wanted to know. So as a last resort, I'll consider trying that. If anyone else has knowledge/facts/test that they have done that will help, please let me know.

I had the BOX CLOSED (cover still on), when I saw the INTERNAL blue light. On the lowest level Roamio, the cover is black, but also slightly translucent. So with the lights dim in the room, and no front lights on, that internal blue light is actually very noticeable. (though only on when the "problem" occurs)

As for your "no harm came of that" scenario, that was exactly what I wanted to know. So as a last resort, I'll consider trying that. If anyone else has knowledge/facts/test that they have done that will help, please let me know.

If its the 4 tuner roamio with the little brick power supply, perhaps the hd is drawing too much power on startup. Did you put a low power hd in there? I've seen this on computers with a lot of components and a too small power supply. Hit and miss bootup. Try the original one and see if it boots reliably. If so, you'll have to get a low power hd or a bigger power brick.

It seems extremely unlikely that TiVo would have spent money to include a chassis intrusion detector on the S5s, so as long as you don't change the hard drive you can probably take the cover off and leave it off and they'll never know.

And if you take the cover off and find the blue LED, maybe there'll be something silk-screened next to it on the board that gives a clue as to what it's there for.

But I wouldn't waste any time exchanging it as faulty.

EDIT: By which I mean I'd claim it to be faulty and get it exchanged without delay.

Good idea, maybe. Normally the power brick is pretty warm, as you'd expect. But who knows about start up peeks. It's the "WD AV-GP 3TB AV Video Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, SATA II, 64 MB Cache - WD30EURS", which is made for low energy and constant on DVR applications.

I looked but can't find any info regarding power consumption of the drive, not even on WD's site. Though it does say it "40% lower" than some other drives. Anyone know what the power usage of it is, vs the TiVo original one?

And if anyone does know what the BLUE internal light means (as outlined in my original post) please tell me! ...TiVo extended my return to 60 days, so I have some more time to learn and try things.

Good idea, maybe. Normally the power brick is pretty warm, as you'd expect. But who knows about start up peeks. It's the "WD AV-GP 3TB AV Video Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, SATA II, 64 MB Cache - WD30EURS", which is made for low energy and constant on DVR applications.

I looked but can't find any info regarding power consumption of the drive, not even on WD's site. Though it does say it "40% lower" than some other drives. Anyone know what the power usage of it is, vs the TiVo original one?

And if anyone does know what the BLUE internal light means (as outlined in my original post) please tell me! ...TiVo extended my return to 60 days, so I have some more time to learn and try things.

How many amps at which voltage should be right there on the label on the top of that WD drive.

That doesn't sound significant at all. I read that on start-up a normal TiVo Roamio pulls in around 27 watts. So even if assumed the original HDD was next to nothing, that still puts it at less than 35 watts. I'd check mine, but can't because it's buried inside my entertainment cabinet behind my Amp which has a rat's nest of wires I'd then have to re-do. Anyone able to find the spec online?

That doesn't sound significant at all. I read that on start-up a normal TiVo Roamio pulls in around 27 watts. So even if assumed the original HDD was next to nothing, that still puts it at less than 35 watts. I'd check mine, but can't because it's buried inside my entertainment cabinet behind my Amp which has a rat's nest of wires I'd then have to re-do. Anyone able to find the spec online?

1) The brick should tell you the output voltage and amps, just multiply the two IE 12vdc 3 amps would be 35 watts.

2) I don't think anybody knows what the blue light is as it seems you need a problem with the unit to see the blue light, and most people that had problems with this model TiVo (and few people have any problem in the first 30 days) would send it back, not look for a blue light, if the TiVo CSRs can't tell you its meaning this Forum most likely can't, so send the TiVo back and stop driving yourself nuts over this as your not going to try to fix a new TiVo yourself anyways, even if you knew what the blue light was for.